


'Twere the Mirror Up to Nature

by Vorta_Scholar



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Alternate Universe, Based on Hamlet, Blood and Violence, Death, F/M, Implied/Referenced Sex, Mirror Universe (Star Trek), kind of, so uhhh, yeah things are gonna get bad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 01:49:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30031200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vorta_Scholar/pseuds/Vorta_Scholar
Summary: After landing in the Delta Quadrant, Voyager's crew was overpowered by the Maquis. Former Captain Kathryn Janeway has died under suspicious circumstances after four years as a Maquis prisoner of war. When mysterious transmissions begin coming in, Tom, Harry, and B'Elanna begin to realize there may be some hope of taking the ship back for Starfleet. | Rating, character list, and tags list subject to change
Relationships: Chakotay/Seska (Star Trek), Harry Kim & B'Elanna Torres, Harry Kim & Tom Paris, Seska & B'Elanna Torres, Tom Paris/B'Elanna Torres
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	'Twere the Mirror Up to Nature

“Who’s there?” Seska asked into the darkness, her hand ready on her phaser.

There was another shuffling noise, like the one before, and the sound of metal on plastic, like the sound of a phaser slipping out of a holster. She retrieved her own but kept it low, at her hip.

“Who is it?” she asked. “I’m not going to ask again.”

There were footsteps, coming closer. Seska remembered the first night she had been on delta shift, the night thirteen of Kathryn Janeway’s followers had escaped their cells in the brig and tried to take back the ship. One of them had knocked her unconscious and she would have been left for dead if Celes hadn’t found her and transported her to sickbay. That was not going to happen again.

She powered up her phaser.

“It’s me,” another woman’s voice finally said.

“B’Elanna,” Seska said, and she slipped her phaser back into her belt.

In front of her, B’Elanna did the same, and nodded, extending her free hand for Seska to clasp in greeting.

“How have you been?” she asked.

“Fine,” B'Elanna replied. “And you?”

“Well enough,” Seska said. “Until you gave me a damn heart attack.”

“Sorry about that,” B’Elanna chuckled. “It was quiet. I was concerned.”

“It’s late,” Seska said. “I was trying to catch up on some reading.” She gestured to a PADD which was sitting on a nearby console. “Not having much luck, though,” she chuckled, then let out an only half-stifled yawn. “As you can see, I’m quite tired.”

“Go on to bed,” B’Elanna said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“My shift isn’t over,” Seska said. “I’ll stay until it is.”

“Nonsense,” B’Elanna said. “What’s twenty minutes?”

“You’re sure?” Seska asked, glancing toward the door and the dimly lit corridor beyond.

“Sure,” B’Elanna said. “I don’t mind. And that’ll give you a few more extra minutes with…”

“Ah-ah!” Seska said, cutting her off. B’Elanna laughed, and so did she. “That’s none of your business.”

“The captain and the first officer,” B’Elanna said. “An impossible secret to keep, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t,” Seska said with a sly grin. “But I will take you up on your offer.”

She started to walk toward the door, but stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of a crash. It sounded close.

“What do you think that was?” B’Elanna asked.

“I don’t know,” Seska said, her phaser already ready. “Who’s there?” she called, aiming her phaser as she stepped out. “Computer, standard illumination.”

The lights raised, and in front of her stood two men: Harry Kim and Crewman Chell.

She lowered her phaser.

“What was that noise?” she asked.

“Chell dropped the crate he was carrying,” Harry said, nodding to his companion, who was carrying a crate full of a rather messy arrangement of PADDs, tricorders, and other equipment.

“Try not to wake half the ship next time,” Seska muttered, powering her phaser down and slipping it back into its holster.

“Sorry,” Chell said, stepping past her and going to set the crate down on the counter beside B’Elanna’s workstation.

“Hm,” Seska hummed indifferently. “I’m going to bed.”

“Goodnight.”

“Night.”

“See you in the morning, Commander,” B’Elanna said, and Seska nodded to her with a polite smile before making her way out of the room.

B’Elanna turned her attention back to the controls, keying in her access codes and transitioning the system for delta shift. She wasn’t sure why Chell and Harry were still there, or why it took both of them to deliver a single crate of tools to engineering. She decided not to ask. Even as Chell eased up beside her workstation, she kept her eyes on the panel, hoping that if she ignored him and his friend long enough, they would go away.

“So,” Chell said, and she heaved a sigh, “have you seen...anything...tonight?”

“What do you mean, Chell?” she asked, looking up at him, her head cocked to the side.

“You know,” he said, glancing down at the panel. “Like two nights ago.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her tone defensive. “I haven’t seen anything unusual.”

“I told Harry here about it,” Chell said.

Her eyes widened.

“He thinks it’s just a glitch in the control matrices.”

“Is that so?” she asked.

“Mhm,” Harry hummed, coming to look over her shoulder. “I’m here to see if it happens again because I’d like to get a look at it for myself.”

“Well, then, you’re going to be here a long time,” she said. “Because I’ve seen nothing. And you won’t, either.”

“Alright,” Harry said, backing down.

B’Elanna sighed, and crossed the room to a second workstation, logging in more access codes. Harry watched as she did. That wasn’t her station. The engineer it belonged to was dead, like many other members of what he would have once called his crew. The Starfleet crew. B’Elanna had killed him, but, in a strike of almost humorous irony (in Harry’s opinion, at least), she hadn’t done herself much of a favor in doing so, because here she was now pulling double duty almost every shift. Even with the crewmembers like himself who had crossed enemy lines to work alongside her people, there weren’t enough people to pick up the slack.

“Why would you want to see it, anyway, Starfleet?” she asked without looking up.

“No reason,” he said. “Just to see if I can fix the issue. Make things a little easier for you and your team.”

She turned to face him, leaning against the console behind her. “No...ulterior motives?” she asked.

“No ulterior motives,” he said, raising his hands and offering her a small smile. “Promise.”

“Ha.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I have trouble not believing you most of the time,” she said. “But this time...I don’t know. This is different.”

He nodded.

“Harry is loyal to the Captain and to the Maquis crew,” Chell chimed in.

“Oh, yeah?” B’Elanna said with a chuckle. “What makes you say that?”

“During the uprising,” Chell said, “Harry helped.”

“I took Gerron to sickbay,” Harry said modestly, shaking his head. “I was…”

“Just trying to help,” B’Elanna said. “Uh-huh. Starfleet morale. I get it.”

“Yeah,” Harry murmured.

“It’s called being a _decent person_ , Starfleet,” B’Elanna said, almost comfortingly. “You see someone who’s hurt, you help them. If you can. That’s not Starfleet or Maquis. It’s common decency.”

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, a flashing series of alternating numbers, letters, and symbols passed across the screen behind Chell’s head, and both Harry and B’Elanna scrambled forward towards it. When they reached it, the screen went staticky, then blank, then flashed on again, and a voice spoke. It sounded robotic at first, then more clearly human.

**_“...to Voyager.”_ **

Static.

**_“...a message for…”_ **

More static.

**_“...and Lieutenant…”_ **

“Holy…” Harry said, his voice trailing off as he frantically started pressing buttons in hopes of clearing up the transmission.

“That sounds exactly like…”

“It isn’t,” B’Elanna said. “Can’t be.”

_**"I know...can't be easy for any of you, but..."** _

“I don’t know,” Harry said, pressing more buttons. “Come on, come on…” he muttered. “There’s no reason to think it couldn’t be a pre-recorded message.”

Finally, the transmission cleared, offering up a final word before cutting off altogether, the screens going completely blank: **_“Murdered.”_ **

“Oh, my God,” Chell said.

“Oh, my…” Harry said, the realization slowly sinking in that the transmission had not only ended, but the whole system appeared to be dead. “Oh, _come on!_ ” he cried, slamming his hands down on the blank screens of the console. “I can’t believe this!”

He looked up at Chell, who was staring behind him. Harry followed Chell’s gaze and saw B’Elanna standing at the opposite console, with all controls rerouted to her workstation.

“You cut it off?” he demanded.

“We don’t need this,” she said.

“It was a message,” Harry said. “There could have been important information in it.”

“For who?” she asked. “For you? For your crew?”

He shook his head. “For…”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, one eyebrow raised.

“We have to tell someone,” Harry said.

“Who?”

“I don’t know,” he said. " _Som_ _eone_. If anyone finds out you’re keeping this secret—”

“We’re,” Chell said, earning a glare from Harry.

“ _We’re_ ,” Harry said with a sigh. “If anyone finds out _we’re_ keeping this secret, there’s no telling what could happen.”

“And if her followers find out she’s sending messages from beyond the grave, or...wherever, there’s no telling what could happen,” B’Elanna said.

Harry shook his head again, fuming. “This is ridiculous.”

“This is the safest way,” B’Elanna said. “If we don’t talk, and just find a way to make them stop, we can move on. We’ll get home eventually with minimum loss of life.”

“Oh, please,” Harry scoffed.

“Nobody needs to know a thing,” she said.

“I’m at least gonna tell Tom,” Harry said.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“He...he,” she stammered. “He was brought here by her. And he’s been acting so weird since…”

“Since?” Harry asked, taking this as his opportunity to cross his arms at her.

“Since she died,” B’Elanna said. “Obviously he had some kind of loyalty to her, even if he did join us, and even if he was with the Maquis before his arrest on Earth.”

“What’s the difference between me knowing and him knowing?” Harry asked. “And what about Chell? You honestly expect _him_ to keep this a secret?”

B’Elanna glanced over at Chell, whose jaw fell slack.

“I resent that,” Chell said.

B’Elanna rolled her eyes.

“Tell me. What’s the difference?” Harry asked.

“You’re…” she started to say. “I don’t know. You’re here. He’s not.”

“Let me talk to him about it.”

“No.”

“Then you tell him.”

There was a long pause before finally, she spoke. “Alright,” she said, nodding. “I’ll tell him. Tomorrow.”


End file.
